The present invention relates to the field of dispensers for wound products, and more particularly for dispensing paper based on tissue paper, such as bathroom tissue or wiping paper, paper towels, etc. Preferably, the rolls are dry.
In general, this type of dispenser comprises a cylindrical body provided with a slot for an opening for the paper to exit. The slot or opening lies in the lower part of the cylindrical body in a position of use such that the paper easily exits the dispenser, but sometimes too easily.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,978,156 discloses a dispenser of this type, which is intended to be attached to a wall and has an opening placed in the lower part of the cylindrical body surrounding the roll. According to this prior art, the opening is extended by a paper-guiding element in the form of straight and mutually parallel lips.
Also known, from document WO 97/47444, is a package forming a dispenser for wound paper sheets. The package consists of a plastic shell (in fact two half-shells) surrounding the roll, and is provided with a guiding element consisting of straight lips that extend the paper exit slot. This device is portable and the guiding element is diametrically opposite the hinge constituting the link between the two plastic half-shells.
Of course, this device cannot be efficiently used if it is laid down, as it has no intrinsic stability. In other words, it can be used only if it is held between one's two hands.
The present invention relates more particularly to wound paper dispensers intended to be laid on a horizontal plane, and making it possible to extract paper from the top of the dispenser using a single hand.
The dispensed paper at the top of a dispenser, and using a single hand, is known, as regards sheets of paper of the interfolded type, that is to say sheets that are cut, folded and then made to overlap one another.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,580,982 discloses a dispenser of this type, which is of parallelepipedal shape and has a paper exit slot on its upper main face. Characteristically, the exit slot is of wavy shape and may be surmounted by a guiding element, for example in the form of a figurine, such as a fish or other decorative element.
Although the above patent shows that dispensing is easy, in the upper part of a laid-down device, it is neither known nor easily conceivable to produce a dispenser of this type for wound products, and more specifically for sheets of tissue paper.
According to one embodiment disclosed in French Patent Application EN 06/52766 filed in the name of the Applicant, such dispensing may be envisaged.
However, when used laid down and not attached, it turns out that the paper very often drops inside the dispenser. This is probably due to the virtual absence of friction at the slot or the guiding element. What happens is that, in the case of a round product, once the end sheet has been extracted and cut, the next sheet is retained inside the dispenser as it is linked to the roll which, being located beneath the opening, “weighs” on the sheet and takes it towards the inside of the dispenser.
To alleviate such a problem, it is conceivable to reduce the spacing between the lips forming the guide for the sheet exiting the dispenser.
However, this solution has limits since the paper, and especially the tissue paper, tears easily. This has been observed in tests. An insufficient spacing, of the order of the thickness of the paper sheet to be unwound, leads to the sheet being jammed or even torn.
Moreover, it has already been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,592,161, a paper roll dispenser being necessarily laid on a horizontal plane, and formed from two parts, namely a lower semicylindrical part serving as liquid reservoir, on which a semicylindrical cover of complementary shape is placed. The roll contained inside is immersed in the liquid and can be unwound, to the outside of the dispenser, through a dispensing element formed by two slightly curved lips, one belonging to the lower part of the dispenser and the second to the cover laid on the lower part.
In this case, partial contact is provided between the two lips so as to press the moist or even wet paper and make the excess liquid fall into the semicylindrical reservoir.
Such an arrangement, although suitable for wet sheets, cannot be transposed to dry sheets for the reason mentioned above, namely the fact that dry sheets, especially sheets of tissue paper, tear and/or become jammed between the two lips placed in this way.